A new book has been dedicated to a Silsden man who survived the battle of Arnhem in 1944.

Oxenhope author David Samuels says he was inspired to write 'Everlasting' by George McConville - 'a gallant Scot I met in Yorkshire'.

In his dedication Mr Samuels writes: 'George was parachuted into the Dutch town of Arnhem on September 18, 1944, with many thousands of other men. They fought for control of a bridge that was vital to the outcome of the Second World War. Thousands of allied troops were killed or reported missing in this bloody battle.

'George McConville never got over the fact that he survived this horrific encounter while many of his comrades perished. Why me? he asked. Why was my life spared, when all around me men died a death so horrible that I still weep to this day?'

George's wife Edna was later in life struck down with multiple sclerosis. "God had a use for him and his time in this world was not to be wasted," says Mr Samuels, whose son Andrew also has MS.

"This man of Arnhem carried from the evil slaughter a goodness that helped and moulded others for over 50 years. Nature had again balanced all sides."

George was imprisoned in Stalag 11B, just two miles from the infamous Belson prison camp, after he was captured by the Germans after parachuting into Arnhem.

The battle scene is captured on a painting which hangs on the wall of the couple's home in Silsden. "The jeep that we were blown out of is on the painting," he says. "One soldier was killed, another was injured and the rest of us were blown out of it."

George, 78, remembers clear-ly his days as a prisoner of war. "They tried to starve us because the Paras were regarded as strong men who could look after themselves," he says.

He regularly visits Arnhem and the site of the prison camp, and also his friend Tony Kalt, a member of the Dutch resistance who helped the Allied invasion. "It is always very poignant and it is hard to imagine that 10,000 people lost their lives or went missing, and only 2,000 returned," he says.

'Everlasting' consists of three stories based on scientific studies of psychology, parapsychology and the dreams of past, present and future life. The concept is of faith and a belief that in nature everything is to be renewed.

It starts in 1748 in Kirkcudbright in Scotland with the fictitious lives of two people.

Then it moves 20 years on to the American West during the early European settlers' clashes with the American Indian. It is brought up to date in our modern times where evil and goodness are found to co-exist in the hearts of all people.

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